Cije  jfust  gear  of  tfje 
fUpmtn ’s  ifUsstonarp  jHohtmmt 

By  SAMUEL  B.  CA PEN 

Chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee 


On  November  15,  1906,  there  was  organized  in  the  City 
of  New  York  the  Laymen’s  Missionary  Movement. 

In  behalf  of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Movement,  I 
give  herewith  in  brief  the  record  of  the  work  up  to  the  end  of 
the  year  1907.  We  wish  you  to  know  personally  of  the  suc¬ 
cess  of  our  plans  thus  far;  to  tell  you  something  of  our  future 
hopes,  and  to  ask  for  your  earnest  efforts  and  prayers  in  the 
months  that  are  just  before  us,  which  are  so  vital  to  our  con¬ 
tinued  progress. 

No  one  could  have  possibly  foreseen  the  rapidity  of  the 
growth  of  this  Movement.  We  have  every  reason  for  encour¬ 
agement  and  for  continued  gratitude  to  God.  We  can  state — 

First.  That  our  plan  has  been  heartily  approved  by  the 
representatives  of  the  foreign  missionary  boards  of  the  United 
States  and  Canada  at  their  annual  conference  last  January. 

Second.  That  almost  one  hundred  men  in  different  parts  of 
the  country,  leaders  in  their  respective  denominations,  have  be¬ 
come  members  of  the  General  Committee. 

Third.  That  six  public  dinners  were  held  last  Spring, 
followed  by  addresses,  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Chicago, 
Baltimore,  Toronto  and  Boston.  These  meetings  were  attended 
by  about  i,zoo  men,  many  of  them  leaders  in  foreign  mission¬ 
ary  work  in  these  cities.  The  Secretary  of  one  of  the  Canadian 
missionary  societies  has  said  that  “potentially  this  is  the  most 
important  religious  movement  of  the  century.” 

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Fourth.  The  Laymen’s  Centennial  Commission  of  fifty 
men  has  been  made  up.  Some  of  the  men,  like  Mr.  S.  W. 
Woodward,  Mr.  Wm.  T.  Ellis  and  Mr.  John  B.  Sleman,  Jr., 
have  returned  and  are  inspiring  people  at  home  with  the  testi¬ 
mony  of  what  they  have  seen. 

Fifth.  At  an  Inter-synodical  Foreign  Missionary  Conven¬ 
tion  for  men  connected  with  the  Presbyterian  Church,  North, 
held  at  Omaha  last  February,  it  was  voted  to  recommend  that 
their  churches  raise  on  an  average  five  dollars  per  member  for 
foreign  missions,  which  would  be  more  than  quadrupling  their 
present  gifts. 

Sixth.  The  men  in  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church 
already  are  organized,  with  committees  in  each  presbytery,  and 
they  are  rapidly  securing  one  good,  strong  layman  to  represent 
this  Movement  in  every  congregation.  With  H.  C.  Ostrom  as 
Field  Secretary,  they  are  planning  to  increase  their  foreign  mis¬ 
sionary  offerings  from  $275,000  a  year  ago  to  one  million 
dollars  this  year.  They  are  trying,  so  far  as  possible,  to  reach  all 
their  250,000  members  with  a  personal  subscription  on  a  weekly 
basis,  which  they  believe  will  give  them  the  million  dollars.  At 
their  General  Assembly,  which  met  at  Birmingham,  Ala.,  May 
2 2d,  they  accepted  their  field  estimated  to  contain  25,000,000 
people,  and  the  Assembly  declared  “  It  to  be  in  our  judgment 
the  duty  of  our  church  to  bring  its  foreign  missionary  offerings 
up  to  this  mark  (one  million  dollars)  at  once.” 

Seventh.  The  Southern  Baptist  Church  has  also  organized 
its  laymen.  They  are  seeking  to  find  a  secretary  and  are  plan¬ 
ning  to  increase  their  foreign  missionary  offerings  this  year  from 
$400,000  to  $750,000.  They  already  have  State  organiza¬ 
tions  of  the  Laymen’s  Movement  in  quite  a  number  of  the 
Southern  States. 

Eighth.  The  Southern  Methodist  Church  has  also  organ¬ 
ized  its  Laymen’s  Missionary  Movement  and  is  planning  an 
aggressive  missionary  campaign  throughout  that  denomination. 

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Ninth.  The  Board  of  Missions  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
has  passed  a  resolution  commending  the  Movement. 

Tenth.  There  is  a  growing  interest  in  foreign  missions  among 
the  laymen  in  the  Baptist  Church  in  the  North.  Some  of  then- 
leaders  have  been  abroad  this  year,  and  have  returned  with  a 
new  interest.  The  exact  form  of  work  to  be  undertaken  has, 
however,  not  yet  been  determined  upon. 

Eleventh.  The  American  Board,  at  its  annual  meeting  in 
Cleveland,  October  9th  to  1  1  th,  voted  heartily  and  unanimously 
to  co-operate  with  the  Laymen’s  Missionary  Movement,  and  has 
pledged  itself  to  endeavor  to  reach  the  seventy-five  million  people 
in  the  fields  for  which  it  is  especially  responsible,  as  rapidly  as 
possible.  It  has  voted  also  to  endeavor  to  double  its  gifts,  with 
the  purpose  of  ultimately  giving  a  much  larger  sum. 

Twelfth.  Interdenominational  Co-operating  Committees  are 
already  organized,  or  are  being  organized,  in  many  of  the  large 
centres  of  the  United  States  and  Canada. 

Thirteenth.  By  invitation  of  various  British  missionary 
societies,  a  deputation  of  six  laymen  was  sent  to  London  last 
May.  This  deputation  was  received  officially  at  the  Bible 
House  in  London  on  the  27th  of  May  by  about  seventy-five 
men,  representing  the  various  British  missionary  societies.  Mass 
meetings  were  held  in  London,  Bristol,  Sheffield,  Edinburgh  and 
Liverpool.  In  the  latter  city  there  were  1,800  present,  and  it 
was  said  to  be  the  largest  men’s  missionary  meeting  ever  held  in 
that  city.  The  same  plan  that  is  being  followed  in  this  country 
has  been  adopted  by  the  men  both  in  England  and  Scotland,  and 
their  thought  is  to  have  a  hundred  men  as  a  committee  represent¬ 
ing  each  country.  Among  the  prominent  men  who  co-operated 
in  launching  the  Laymen’s  Movement  in  Great  Britain  are 
the  following  :  Lord  Guthrie,  Lord  Kinnaird,  Lord  Overtoun, 
The  Master  of  Polwarth,  Sir  Mackworth  Young,  Sir  Edwin 
Russell,  Sir  Andrew  Wingate,  Colonel  Williams,  Sir  John  Ken- 
naway.  Sir  Albert  Spicer,  Sir  Fowell  Buxton,  The  Master 
Cutler  of  Sheffield,  The  Lord  Provost  of  Edinburgh,  The 

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Lord  Mayor  of  Bristol,  The  Lord  Mayor  of  Liverpool,  and 
The  Lord  Mayor  of  Sheffield. 

Fourteenth.  The  men  in  Germany  are  inquiring  about  the 
Movement,  and  we  are  told  that  they  are  eager  for  a  plan  of 
this  kind. 

Fifteenth.  The  most  significant  development  of  the  Move¬ 
ment  has  been  the  action  taken  by  the  representative  Christian 
men  of  entire  cities,  during  October,  November,  and  Decem¬ 
ber,  1907.  In  twelve  cities  visited  during  this  period,  large 
assemblies  of  carefully  selected  men  have  undertaken  to  increase 
the  missionary  offerings  of  the  Churches  of  their  respective  cities, 
in  an  absolutely  unprecedented  manner.  Some  have  decided 
that  these  offerings  should  be  doubled  this  year,  others  that  they 
should  be  trebled,  and  several  cities  have  undertaken  to  quad¬ 
ruple  their  offerings.  In  some  of  these  cities  great  progress  has 
already  been  made  toward  securing  the  amounts  aimed  at. 

Men  are  showing  unprecedented  willingness  to  get  behind 
the  missionary  enterprise,  and  undertake  to  give  and  raise  greatly 
increased  amounts  of  money  for  it.  In  some  cases  the  goal  set 
up  may  not  be  reached  in  a  single  year,  though  in  a  number  of 
cases  it  undoubtedly  will  be.  This  much  is  abundantly  apparent, 
many  strong  men  of  the  Church  want  to  see  the  evangelization 
of  the  world  seriously  attempted,  and  they  are  willing,  in  increas¬ 
ing  numbers,  to  work  hard  to  get  this  object  accomplished. 

The  twelve  cities  in  which  these  definite  policies  have  been 
adopted  are:  Topeka,  St.  Joseph,  Brantford,  Ont.,  Hamilton, 
Ont.,  London,  Ont.,  Toronto,  St.  Louis,  Nashville,  Knoxville, 
Atlanta,  Charlotte  and  Norfolk. 

Ouite  as  notable  as  the  increase  in  financial  co-operation  by 
business  men  has  been  the  great  spiritual  uplift  that  has  come  to 
many  of  these  men.  It  is  certain  that  men  are  being  aroused 
by  this  missionary  challenge,  and  are  being  led  to  give  them¬ 
selves  as  never  before  to  the  whole  work  of  God  in  the  world. 
While  the  primary  objective  of  the  Movement  is  the  evangeliza¬ 
tion  of  the  non-Chrisdan  world,  it  is  already  releasing  vast 
spiritual  forces  for  dealing  more  adequately  with  the  problems 
confronting  the  Church  at  home.  Jacob  A.  Riis  gives  striking 

4 


expression  to  the  working  of  a  great  spiritual  law  when  he  says: 
“Every  dollar  contributed  to  foreign  missions  releases  ten 
dollars’  worth  of  energy  for  dealing  with  the  tasks  at  our  own 
doors.” 

Sixteenth.  The  Scottish  National  Committee  have  secured 
Mr.  Kenneth  Maclennan,  of  Edinburgh,  as  General  Secretary 
of  the  Movement  in  Scotland.  The  English  National  Com¬ 
mittee  are  earnestly  seeking  for  a  suitable  General  Secretary,  the 
funds  for  his  support  having  been  already  subscribed. 

Seventeenth.  On  December  5  th,  there  was  organized  in 
the  City  of  Chicago  by  the  Congregadonalists  of  the  interior 
States,  a  committee  to  co-operate  with  the  Laymen’s  Missionary 
Movement.  There  is  to  be  a  central  committee  at  Chicago, 
with  three  co-operating  members  from  each  State.  It  is  pro¬ 
posed  to  secure  the  names  of  all  male  members  over  eighteen 
years  of  age  in  the  Congregational  churches  in  these  States,  and 
to  reach  them  with  special  literature.  It  is  hoped  thus  to  touch 
many  thousands  of  men.  Groups  of  laymen  are  to  be  organized 
in  each  State  to  visit  churches  and  present  the  objects  of  this 
special  Movement. 

Eighteenth.  We  have  just  published  a  series  of  strong 
missionary  pamphlets  for  men,  which  from  their  high  character 
will  be  of  universal  interest. 

IMPORTANT  LAYMEN’S  MEETINGS 

First.  The  Congregational  laymen  are  planning  to  have 
meetings  similar  to  the  one  recently  held  in  Chicago,  in  New 
England,  in  New  York  and  in  two  or  three  places  upon  the 
Pacific  Coast. 

Second.  The  Northern  Presbyterian  Church  is  planning  a 
men’s  foreign  missionary  conference  at  Philadelphia,  to  be  held 
February  11th  to  13  th,  at  which  they  hope  to  have  at  least  a 
thousand  men  present. 

Third.  The  Southern  Methodist  Church  is  planning  a 
convention  of  a  thousand  men  to  meet  in  Chattanooga  next  April. 

5 


Fourth.  The  Baptist  laymen  of  Canada  are  arranging  for 
the  early  organization  of  a  laymen’s  movement  there. 

Fifth.  Plans  are  being  made  with  the  expectation  of  hold¬ 
ing  missionary  meetings  for  men  in  many  of  the  large  cities  of 
the  United  States  and  Canada  this  winter. 

Sixth.  Dr.  Torrey,  Dr.  Chapman  and  others  have  it  in 
mind  to  put  foreign  missions  into  their  evangelistic  campaigns, 
giving  perhaps  one  entire  day  to  foreign  missionary  needs. 

METHODS  OF  WORK 

First.  In  co-operation  with  the  Laymen’s  Missionary 
Movement  it  is  urged  that  in  all  the  great  cities  there  should  be 
organized  at  once,  interdenominational  co-operating  committees 
to  promote  an  aggressive  and  adequate  missionary  policy  in  all 
the  churches  in  their  district. 

Second.  This  interdenominational  co-operating  committee 
should  plan  to  secure  a  group  of  key-men  in  each  local  church, 
who  shall  be  pledged  to  care  for  foreign  missionary  interests, 
working  always  in  harmony  with  pastors  and  church  committees. 

Third.  Let  these  key-men,  in  parlor  and  dining-room  con¬ 
ferences,  endeavor  to  reach  all  the  men  in  their  own  local 
churches.  We  want  what  has  been  well  called  “applied 
personality.” 

Fourth.  In  doing  this  personal  work,  an  endeavor  should 
be  made  to  secure  as  many  men  as  possible  to  subscribe  to  the 
Declaration  Card  of  the  Laymen’s  Missionary  Movement: 

^eliebing  it  to  be  the  but?  of  the  Church  of  Christ  to 
preach  the  ©oSpcl  to  eberp  creature,  it  is  mp  purpose  to 
prap,  to  gibe,  to  jrftubp  anb  to  moth,  aS  Cob  ‘map  gibe  me 
opportunitp,  that  the  Church  of  this  generation  map  obep 
this  commanb.  *  v 

Fifth.  A  further  endeavor  should  be  made  to  secure  from 
all  the  men  in  all  our  churches  definite  pledges  of  money,  worthy 
of  the  present-day  opportunities  and  of  the  Master  whom  we 
serve. 


6 


Sixth.  We  believe  that  it  will  be  possible  to  reach  and 
utilize  existing  church  clubs,  many  of  which  are  organized 
simply  for  social  purposes.  What  the  men  need  to-day  is 
something  that  calls  for  service. 

SPECIAL  CALLS  FOR  PRAYER 

First.  How  to  grapple  with  the  great  problems  of  co¬ 
operation,  leadership  and  methods.  After  arousing  such  expecta¬ 
tions  at  home  and  among  missionaries  abroad,  we  need  the 
Divine  guidance  as  never  before. 

Second.  It  would  be  of  great  value,  if  it  is  possible,  to  find 
some  comprehensive  plan  of  finance  for  the  whole  foreign 
missionary  enterprise.  It  is  difficult  to  find  such  a  plan,  and 
we  need  special  guidance  here. 

Third.  May  we  not  ask  for  continued  prayer  for  the 
various  meetings  of  the  winter  ? 

j Fourth.  The  Missionary  Movements  of  the  centuries  were 
born  in  prayer-meetings,  and  this  has  been  most  emphatically 
true  of  our  Laymen’s  Movement.  We  must  continue  in  this 
spirit  of  prayer  if  we  are  to  succeed  in  our  purpose.  We  men 
need  not  only  to  study  missions  and  plans  of  systematic  and 
universal  benevolence,  but  most  of  all  to  develop  the  prayer  life. 
Let  us  then  together  pray  that  we  and  all  men  may  have  a  larger 
vision  of  the  wonderful  opportunities  open  to  us  everywhere  ; 
that  to  all  men  may  be  revealed  the  meaning  of  stewardship  ; 
that  we  may  have  more  personal  loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ,  and 
that  his  order  to  “Go  and  disciple  the  nations  ”  may  become 
more  real  to  us  ;  that  we  may  all  be  more  ready  to  assume 
definitely  our  own  share  of  the  sacred  obligation  that  rests  upon 
us;  that  we  may  be  more  ready  to  plan,  to  give  and  to  sacrifice 
for  Christ’s  sake. 

Boston,  January  I,  1908. 


7 


Missionary  Literature  for  Men 


The  Laymen’s  Missionary  Movement, 

By  Samuel  B.  Capen 

5c  each;  40c  per  doz.;  $2.50  per  100;  $15.00  per  1000. 

Our  Share  of  the  World,  By  J.  Campbell  White 

5c  each;  40c  per  doz.;  $2.60  per  100,  express  pre¬ 
paid;  $15.00  per  1000,  carriage  paid  by  purchaser. 

The  First  Tear  of  the  Laymen’s  Missionary 
Movement,  By  Samuel  B.  Capen 

5c  each,  25c  per  doz.;  $1.50  per  100,  postpaid. 

Declaration  Cards,  50c  per  100 

Present  Conditions  in  China,  By  Hon.  John  W.  Foster 
10c  per  copy;  $5.00  per  100;  $18.00  per  1000.  Car¬ 
riage  paid  by  purchaser.  Order  from  the  Student 
Volunteer  Movement,  3  West  29th  Street,  N.  Y. 

The  Evangelization  of  the  World  In  this  Gener¬ 
ation,  By  John  R.  Mott 

Book,  245  pp. ;  paper  binding;  35c  per  copy;  $20.00 
per  100;  $150.00  per  1000.  Carriage  paid  by  pur¬ 
chaser.  Order  from  the  Student  Volunteer  Move¬ 
ment,  3  West  29th  Street,  N.  Y. 

Note — The  following  may  be  secured,  by  special 
arrangement,  from  the  Student  Volunteer  Movement, 

3  West  29th  Street,  N.  Y.  Uniform  Price,  5c  each; 

40c  per  doz.;  $2.50  per  100,  for  100  or  more,  express 
prepaid:  $15.00  per  1000,  for  1000  or  more,  express  paid 
by  purchaser. 

The  Non-Christian  Religions  Inadequate, 

By  Robert  E.  Speer 

The  Place  of  Missions  in  the  Thought  of  God, 

By  Robert  E.  Speer 

The  Wonderful  Challenge  to  this  Generation, 

By  Robert  E.  Speer 

The  Call  of  the  Non-Christian  World, 

By  John  R.  Mott 

The  World’s  Evangelization,  By  John  R.  Mott 

The  Supreme  Business  of  the  Church, 

By  Dr.  George  Robson 

The  Opportunity  of  the  Hour,  or  Christian 
Stewardship,  By  George  Sherwood  Eddy 

Moneys  Its  Nature  and  Power,  By  Dr.  A.  F.  Schauffler 

Prayer  for  Missions,  By  Professor  Warneck 

The  Claims  of  the  Hour,  By  Dr.  Maltbie  D.  Babcock 


Sample  copies  of  all  the  above,  $1.00.  Order  from  the  Stndent 
Volunteer  Movement.  Cash  must  accompany  all  orders. 


We  also  strongly  recommend 

The  Missionary  and  His  Critics,  By  Dr.  James  L.  Barton 
Price,  $1.00;  paper,  35c.  Order  from  Fleming  H. 

Revell,  158  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York. 


Laymen’s  Missionary  Movement 

1  MADISON  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


